How to create 3d bronze text effect in style of Fable 3 logo

The Fable 3 logo makes use of texture, drop shadows, bevels and strokes. Here is a quick method of creating a similar 3D bronze text effect by using layer styles on a text layer.

Please note, some of the settings in this tutorial will be specific to the size of the text I am using, settings will need to vary to account for this. To follow this tutorial exactly you will need to use the font ‘Dumbledor 3 Wide’ available free at Dafont at 105pt in size.

Step 1.

Create a new document and create a new text layer with the wording you want to use (The text can be in any colour as this will be filled with a pattern in the next stage.

create a new text layer

Step 2.

Double click the text layer in the layers palette to bring up the layer style panel.

Layer Style Panel

Step 3.

Clicking on the pattern overlay button choose a pattern similar to the one below. If you don’t have any like this installed, right click the wood pattern below and save it to your computer before adding it to your patterns list in Photoshop (You can find a tutorial for how to do this here step 7 onwards).

Wood Patternpattern overlay

Step 4.

Still using the layer style panel choose stroke and copy the settings below.

stroke settings

To change the gradient colour click on the colour bar and drag extra tabs onto the bottom of the bar. The settings for the colour tabs are:

Choose Bevel and Emboss and follow the settings below, the highlight colour is #b66c35 and shadow colour #000000.

bevel and emboss settingscontour settings

Step 6.

Next activate the Inner Shadow layer style with the settings below.

Inner shadow settings

Step 7.

And finally set the drop shadow settings to match the values below.

drop shadow settings

Step 8.

You should now have something that looks like the effect below.

text effectlayer styles active

Step 9.

Next you will need to duplicate the layer in the layers palette. To do this, select the type layer and press Apple J / Ctrl J.

Step 10.

Right click on the top layer and choose ‘clear layer styles from the menu. We will add different layer effects to the top layer.

clear layer styles on top layer

Step 11.

Double click the top text layer to bring up the layer palette options and choose blending options from the left hand menu. Reduce the opacity of this layer so that the effects on the previous layer show through.

Next change the bevel and contour settings. The highlight colour is #e9d9ae.

Bevel settingscontour settings

Step 14.

You should now have a similar look to the final effect below. If you intend to move the text around a lot you can link the layers by selecting both text layers in the layers palette, right clicking and choosing link layers.